Elementary News and Updates (06/25/21)

As a group, our wonderful volunteers gave over 1,000 hours to our school, even during these COVID times – amazing! If you have not entered your hours for the 2020-21 school year, please do so by July 10, as that is when the school year will roll over to 2021-22.

The Secondary School is looking for innovators to join the STEM Team. The positions that we have open to teach in our Elementary School include:

• Elementary 3-5 Teachers
• Elementary K-5 Online Teacher

We also have positions to join the K-12 Staff.

• MTSS Coordinator
• After-School Programming Assistant (Part-Time)

Visit our Employment page for more information and instructions on how to apply.

The Yearbook company said that yearbooks will not arrive until the week of the 24th-28th or later due to slow processing and machine issues while printing. If you ordered an Elementary Yearbook, you will receive an email about pickup information once they do arrive.

Please check Infinite Campus to make sure we have your current address. If you have a change of address please email Tiffany Klenke (tiffany.klenke@https://stemk12.org), K-12 Registrar, with a proof of residency. Douglas County School District and STEM School Highlands Ranch only accept the following legal documents as proof of residence:

• warranty deed
• deed of trust
• lease agreement
• tax notice
• county assessor
• notarized letter

As we prepare for the 2021-22 School Year, we’d like to remind our families on the important medical documents that will need to be completed. There have been some updates to the non-medical exemption forms. Please take a look at them in the Health Services section of our website.

All STEM kindergarten students are invited to spend an abbreviated school day at STEM to kick off the year. Students will meet all the teachers and staff, tour the school, engage in STEM activities, and be informally assessed for classroom placement.

We ask that all kindergarten students attend one session on either August 10 or August 11. An opportunity to sign-up for one of the sessions will be sent home sometime at the end of July.

Available session options will be:

August 10

• AM Session from 8:30 – 10 a.m.
• PM Session from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

August 11

• AM Session from 8:30 – 10 a.m.
• PM Session from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Parents will receive classroom and teacher notification on the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug.11. The first full day of kindergarten will be on Thursday, Aug. 12. In order to ease parents and students in the initial drop-off and the start of kindergarten classes, we ask that kindergarten students be dropped off at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday of that week only. Teachers will meet students in the gated sandbox area to the north of the Elementary School Entrance driveline drop-off area. Please be on the lookout for an email from our kindergarten team of teachers later this summer.

All new to STEM Elementary School students are invited to spend a portion of their day on Monday, Aug. 9 at STEM to kick off the year. Students will meet all the teachers and staff, tour the school, and engage in STEM activities.

Students in grades first and second will be invited to attend the morning session from 9-11 a.m. Students in grades third, fourth and fifth will be invited to attend the afternoon session from 12-2 p.m. More information will be shared in late July.

We are finalizing the planning process for the 2021-22 School Year. In order to do that, we need all families who are interested in signing up their student for Virtual Learning in our Elementary School to complete the Sign-Up Form.

This form is for our families to sign up for Virtual Learning for the 2021-22 school year. The form will close on July 1 so that we can finalize hiring for our Virtual teaching positions.

Signing up for Virtual Learning means that your student will be learning remotely for the entire Fall and possibly the Spring semester. The flexibility of switching from Virtual to In-person Learning, as well as attending special grade-level events during the school day will not be available as it was last school year. Switching to in-person, at the semester break will only be an option if there is a seat available in a classroom. Virtual students can participate in all Enrichment Programming.

Virtual Learning students will have a dedicated online teacher(s) that will provide synchronous and asynchronous learning each day. Students will follow a similar bell schedule as in-person students and have specific times for when they will meet with their teacher and/or peer groups.

More details will be shared with the families who sign-up for Virtual Learning as we get closer to the start of the school year. Please email LynAnn.Kovalesky@https://stemk12.org with any questions. If you have a student in our Secondary School (grades 6-12), a similar sign-up form will be shared soon.